After picking up his 2,000th hit last week and becoming the first Texas Ranger to do so, Michael Young can now set his sights on the magical number of 3,000 hits.
OK, so Young probably isn't actually thinking about that right now. He's got a pennant race to go win.
But as fans and observers, we can go look at whether he has a legitimate shot to pick up his 3,000th hit.
Young is having arguably his best offensive season of his 11-year career. He's hitting .333, better than his career-best of .331, when he won the batting title in 2005.
He's got 80 RBIs, and is on pace to break his career-best of 103 in 2006. He's just really seemed to take to his DH/Utility role that he seemed to be destined to hate so much back in the winter.
Young's career average for hits in a season is 200, right on the dot.
So at that pace, if he can continue it, likely from more and more of a DH role, he would need 5 more seasons to pick up 993 more hits.
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If Young can become a full-time DH and embrace the role, like Paul Molitor did at the end of his career, he'll have a pretty solid chance to reach it around age 38 or 39.
Only problem, I guess, is coming up with a new marketing campaign. MY3K doesn't roll off the tongue quite as nicely as MY2K.
